The Struggle Within
What’s Your Story?
What are you struggling with in your life?
- Fear of missing out
- Chasing perfection
- Failure
- Pleasing others to a fault
- Crisis of faith
How are you dealing with your struggle(s)? Many times, we don’t deal with our problems instead, we merely accept them as the norm. But does it have to be this way? Everyone one of us is messed up in some way…is there a fix? Maybe a solution exists for us, or perhaps it doesn’t, but we’ll never know unless we deal directly with ourselves.
Silence Is Golden
When is the last time you spent time in silence? —meditating, contemplating, & reflecting. Has it been a while?
Why is the meditation industry growing rapidly?
Presumably, people realize and value the importance of disconnecting with technology and reconnecting with themselves. The growth of the mindfulness industry is definitely a symptom of our always-on culture. It’s not a good sign…we just don’t like spending time in silence.
In 2015, Science Magazine published an interesting article, titled:
People would rather be electrically shocked than left alone with their thoughts
Not the most captivating title, but the message is clear: people would rather shock themselves than be alone with nothing to do.
For 15 minutes, the team left participants alone in a lab room in which they could push a button and shock themselves if they wanted to. The results were startling: Even though all participants had previously stated that they would pay money to avoid being shocked with electricity, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to inflict it on themselves rather than just sit there quietly and think — Science Magazine
Wow…I guess men really do have a shorter attention span!
We’re A Distracted Culture
[People are addicted to their phones because] they don’t want to be alone for a second because it’s so hard
— Louis C.K.
Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain because something that’s dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient, low-level way, and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from feeling, or at least from feeling directly or with our full attention
— David Foster Wallace
Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself
— Nietzsche
Those are three compelling quotes. But are they true about you or me? Who is the person you’re most uncomfortable being alone with? Is it yourself? If so…then just whip out your phone and the discomfort is over. Like magic — it disappears. We’re always “encouraged” to read, do, & buy something else. Technology not only allows us to remain connected it also gives us the impression that we’re involved in something bigger than ourselves. But continually being swept into the next great thing has consequences. Our preferences are fed which impacts our interpretation of life.
The gap between things that are important and things that are trivial shrinks. Everything is always important, and we have to keep up or get left behind!
As humans, we all struggle with something. Our current techno-saturated culture allows us to easily ignore our problems. Our response can easily become to ignore “it” and move on to something else. As a society, we’re not interested in examining our lives because we need to move on to the next important thing. It’s not that we don’t care about ourselves…we’re just too busy.
Self-Reflection: Journaling
One thing the Stoics like Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, & Seneca had in common was journaling. Spending time daily dealing with themselves. I know that we’re all super busy and can’t possibly find time for journaling. But the great thing about the practice is that it can be short and sweet or long and more in-depth. There’s room to find what works for you and at least start.
For instance:
- Start simple with a gratitude journal. Be specific and list the things you’re particularly grateful for and what your life would be like without them.
- Start a knowledge journal. What did you learn today and how will your new found knowledge help you? How can you share what you know with others?
- Journaling prompts are a great way to take out the guesswork of journaling. Prompts give us thoughts to ponder and allow deep reflection
- Create an idea journal. You probably have lots of ideas swarming around in your mind. Journaling allows you to disconnect and record all those great ideas.
- The Five Minute Journal is a great way to start.
- One Line A Day is another journaling hack that can help you get started.
- Or…get a nice Leuchtturm notebook and your favorite pen write whatever comes to mind.
Journaling isn’t another strategy…it’s a framework for reflection and understanding. The practice requires our most precious resources: Time + Attention — precisely what technology seeks from us. But control of these resources is in our hands.
